


Thank You

by rosemari_00



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-02-26
Packaged: 2018-03-15 07:31:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3438815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosemari_00/pseuds/rosemari_00
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Depressing AoSaku AU where Sakurai never goes to Touou and never meets Aomine- until they run into each other in the hospital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thank You

Five minutes seemed like an eternity to Aomine at this point.

He watched the rooms as they went by, his heavy footsteps resounding off of the linoleum floor and disturbing the silence of the tacky colored halls. Waiting room chairs felt like benches, and the constriction in his chest had stretched far past unbearable in there. The second Satsuki slipped off to the bathroom, he'd bolted- which, honestly, she should've been expecting. His ankle _had_ stopped throbbing a while ago. Now his footsteps’ familiar echoes only made him crave the game more.

Glancing at his phone, he scowled- it was already well into the first quarter. Professional basketball hadn't always been his thing, but the older he got, the more he wanted to watch it. Maybe, he considered, there was a vacant room nearby, somewhere he could crash in, with cable... or, even a radio would do, at this point....

"... Ah, and there it is, another beautiful three pointer..."

His ears perked as he heard that, passing yet another indistinguishable cubicle.

"That leaves Tokyo in the lead again, 22 - 20."

Any sense of manners Aomine possessed had vanished completely as he stepped without a care to where the voice was coming from. It was a small room, brighter than the damp hallway and smelling less of sterilized sickness than the rest of the building. In the middle of the room was a bed, with a man sitting in it, his scrawny hands clutching a remote.

Certainly, one really couldn't describe Aomine Daiki as a very tactful person, but even this was a bit much for him. The poor man nearly had a heart attack when such a hulking human being sprung suddenly from around the corner.

"Ah, sorry,” Aomine raised his hands up in the air to show he meant no harm. “I'm stuck in the waiting room, and I've been looking everywhere for a place to watch the game."

The man didn’t reply, his wide, umber eyes staring in bewilderment at Aomine.

"Ah… What quarter is it? The first?"

Still nothing. Was he deaf? Or maybe mute? Something about the way he was staring at Aomine made him very uncomfortable. "Er... Can you talk?" He asked, dropping his voice to a more polite tone.

"... Y... Yeah." he replied, finally, even if faintly. Clearly, this person wasn’t used to having any visitors.

"Sorry, man,” Aomine was visibly embarrassed at the reaction to his intrusion. “I'll, uh... I'll go. I was just hoping to catch the score--"

"Oh!! Ah, wait!" The man sat up from a rigid position on the bed, shaking his head in protest. "N-No, no, you can stay!" His voice was clear, and objecting this time, which seemed strange with such a fragile looking body. "You can stay," he repeated, his tone almost apologetic. "I was just- ... I was just surprised, is all. Not every day... a basketball star... strolls into your room, you know..."

Now it was Aomine's turn to be silent. His brow furrowed, as he looked at this guy. Kid was a more proper word to use, because he was- or at least, he appeared that way. He looked younger than Aomine, and the transparent skin on his arms and wrists revealed what a bony person he was. It heavily contrasted the worn look of his face.

Despite all of this, though, Aomine thought him beautiful.

Hesitantly, the kid's expression dropped into somewhat of a frown, his thin eyebrows knitting together dejectedly. "... I'm sorry... It... It's still the first quarter, anyway…”

".... Wait, what’d you say?"

Taking the opportunity while he still had it, Aomine sat down in the chair beside the boy's bed. He thought his pale face seemed to turn a shade brighter when he spun a question on him, though it was so faint it could’ve easily been his imagination.

“Wh… What?”

“You said ‘basketball star'... what’d you mean?”

There was definitely some brightness again at that. Or maybe it was just pink. "Well, I mean... You’re Aomine Daiki, aren’t you?" With a bashful face, the kid pulled his thin lips into a smile. "... Of course, I've heard of the star of Touou... I keep up with the high school ball around here."

"... Oh. Yeah." Aomine responded. It almost came off uncomfortably, though he hadn't meant to, and the guy seemed to panic as soon as he did. "No, no, it's fine," he continued. "I was just... surprised, is all." Ever since his second year at Touou, people would occasionally recognize him- usually men who kept up with university basketball, and had high hopes for Aomine's future. "You're the first person under thirty who's known my name offhand like that... I'm starting to feel famous."

The guy laughed at that, and Aomine laughed back. It was strange to see someone so sickly laugh so carelessly, life glowing in his eyes. They were the kind of eyes that'd catch you off guard if you weren't careful: clear, and bright- like caramel colored honesty.

"I'm.... Ryou." was his final response after a while. Aomine was so busy staring at his face he almost missed it. "... My name is Sakurai Ryou."

-

He was 18. He was only a few days younger than Aomine, a fact which surprised the latter to no end. No matter how he looked at him, he seemed too fragile to be so close to adulthood. He hadn’t asked why, though- why he looked so fragile, or for what reason he was being cooped up in a hospital. Part of it was Aomine’s lack of understanding of the situation, but even without that, something kept him from bringing it up.

Momoi, to no surprise, had been scouring the hospital in search of him, accompanied by a legion of distraught nurses' assistants. Her incessant messaging made it difficult for the two of them to keep up their game-time conversation, and when asked who he was texting Aomine only replied with “A real pain in the ass.”

The conversation had begun to dwindle long before Momoi arrived, however.

“You like to cook, huh?”

The commercials drowned in the quiet air.

“... Yeah.”

“You could cook for me sometime. I never get any good meals anymore...”

A pause.

“... I… don’t know if that’s a good idea…”

“Sure it is!" Aomine snorted. "What, you don’t like me?”

“Oh no!! I-I’m sorry, that’s not it, of course! I like you a lot! I mean, I, ah… I like you… not weirdly, I mean…”

"Then we can hang out when you're outta here. I love home cooking."

Ryou paused long enough to make Aomine nervous about his statement (there’s no way he was being overly friendly, right?) before responding in a silent voice. "... I'd like that."

He would drop into whispers like that every so often, and it made Aomine not want to press him anymore. He already seemed far too breakable. His hands were pale and tiny, and more than once Aomine caught himself wanting to hold them in his own until they got warm. It was an unsettling desire, and he eventually blamed it on the fact that Ryou was simply so cute it was almost girlish.

Even when he'd intruded so suddenly, the comical expression on Ryou's face was endearing.

Rather, that was the first sudden entrance- the second one seemed to honestly stop his heart. As different as the two were in appearance, Ryou thought Aomine and this strawberry beauty had a lot more in common than one would think.

Her eyes had no sooner met Aomine with a blind rage than they met Ryou's, melting like butter into a sorrowful apology.

It was an expression he was used to, Aomine would later come to find out.

Being as daft as he is, Aomine was thoroughly confused as to why she was so soft spoken. Her scolding should have been loud, and annoying, but instead it was quiet.

"I'm sorry for causing you trouble, Miss..."

Ryou's frail voice struck a low melody in Aomine's heart when he heard it, and he saw no other reason for Satsuki's hesitance than her mere awe at what an angel he'd stumbled upon.

"You shouldn't be apologizing," he frowned. "It's my bad. But I guess I gotta go now... here."

Without thinking, he grabbed a pen from Ryou's bedside table, scribbling his name and contact.

"Text me. Maybe we can hang out soon? I'll take you to a game."

"Dai-chan..."

Her eyes were glossy when Aomine finally turned to them, soft strands of her hair gently swaying in the air as she shook her head.

"I'm so sorry... We'll leave you now. I hope he didn't cause you trouble."

Ryou didn't speak again as she took Aomine by the arm, pulling him from the room. He wanted to hear the answer, and to listen to Ryou's clear voice once again, but he let Satsuki lead him away.

"... What part of the hospital was that, Satsuki..?"

The silence had remained unshattered for a few minutes now.

"... The cancer ward, Dai-chan."

"... Oh..."

Stepping into the waiting room, the nurse called his name, and told them the doctor was finally ready to see him.

"... Do you think he'll text me, Satsuki?"

Aomine's grin was forced just enough to encourage a sigh from Momoi.

"... Of course."

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I'll be continuing. That was always the plan, but it depends on the response! Thank you for all your support, and I hope you enjoyed c:


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